Entrepreneurs
A Behind-The-Scenes Look at How Expeditions Maasai Safaris’ CEO Pancras Karema Built a Household Brand from a Mere Obsession
Entrepreneur Pancras Karema is not taking chances or stopping at anything until he wins. The University of Nairobi Tourism Graduate and CEO of Kenya’s Expeditions Maasai Safaris has transformed his high school obsession into a household name in the Kenyan tour industry within 5 years – with two offices in Nairobi and one in Mombasa, 50 employees and thousands of customers traveling all over the world. His greatest ambition is to build Africa’s first unicorn in the tour industry.
Karema will do whatever it takes to win, from risking long working hours to deliver to his promise to make clients believe he is good at what he does, the blazing entrepreneur is an ambitious provocateur with a laser-like focus and key attention to details.
On the Christmas eve of 2019, I sat with him at the Westlands based Movenpick Hotel for a feature interview for Inversk. Our one-hour meeting ended at midnight, lasting 5 hours. His story appeared on the Inversk Magazine April 2020 Edition.
Pancras Karema Featuring on the Inversk Magazine Cover – April 2020
Karema’s success story dates back to his childhood days. Being the firstborn in a family of 3, Karema had to take care of his younger siblings by showing them direction and guiding them on the right choices to make in becoming responsible humans, an experience that taught him “people are different and you have to be patient when dealing with them. I learned how to be a good and responsible leader. Skills that I still apply to this day.”
His mother is a former teacher turned housewife and his late dad was a lecturer at the University of Nairobi. Being teachers, the parents were strict disciplinarians. “My dad was very tough on us in terms of undertaking studies and working hard. He taught us how to dream big, be responsible, how to know exactly what we want in life, and planning on how to achieve it and remain focused until we get it.”
Karema never had a role model. Everyone he knew in the village was either a teacher, a drunkard, or both. “This is not the life I wanted.” Determined to change the narrative and inspire young people in his village, Karema developed a curiosity to learn about everything and anything.
From football, politics, and entrepreneurship, he wanted to know what makes people different. And with his father’s newspapers and local library materials, Karema read about people like Michuki, Peter Munga, James Mwangi, Richard Branson who hit headlines on different matters in business. “I wanted to know how they think and make decisions.”
“People also used me as their source of information and I had to read more and get all facts concerning a particular subject.” He says.
At school, Karema was an average student and sometimes a headache to teachers. He schooled at Ontulili High, located at the foot of Mount Kenya. On Saturdays, he could lead a troop of boys into the forest for adventure. While this got him into trouble, he saw it as the best way to get out of the boring-confined school life. He needed to swim, meet animals and explore. What he or his friends didn’t know was that he (Karema) was preparing himself for his future life – building a tour company.
The tale of how Karema built his company to where he is today is rather intriguing, “this is the only job I have ever had.”
When he enrolled for his degree at the University of Nairobi, Karema started helping friends go for hikes and adventures. Something that made him popular. “Everyone came to me to help them because they heard what I was doing.” They nicknamed him ‘the organizer.’ “We referred our outings as ‘expeditions’ because all we wanted was to go out and have fun.” No one knew this could later become his company name.
Expeditions Maasai Safaris CEO Pancras Karema
Owing to his attention to details and reputation to delivering good results, people from outside campus also reached to him and asked him could help them organize a hike or team building activity. Something he did at a fee.
In 2015 after clearing his studies, Karema registered Expedition Maasai Safaris. “I still resided in the campus hostels and my income was too little to sustain me.” He could later be joined by a childhood friend with whom they rented a hostel in Ngara and a small office near City Market. “Our office rent was Ksh 7,000 and we had one laptop which we used in turns.”
Their marketing strategy included handing company fliers to strangers in town, social media hyping and referrals from clients who had been satisfied with their services. “People used to listen to us and some could trust us to do business with us. We had so many customers but the revenues were so little and no profits. We were struggling.”
The big break came in September 2016 when Expedition Maasai Safaris got nominated for Biz Yangu award at the Soma Awards. “It was a small award compared to other award categories, but we needed it. We did all we could to created online campaigns and asked for votes.” Surprisingly, despite competing with big brands, their company won the award and also crowned the company of the year Award. “This was a miracle for us because we had not envisioned it. It opened doors for us to the media and ultimately to the corporate world.”
Pancras Karema, Expeditions Maasai Safaris Chairman Kavit Shah and Lawrence Gitonga (MD) pose with the SME of the Year Award
The award came as a validation for Karema’s hard work. It also offered them credibility for their work and corporate companies started working with them. Today, Expedition Maasai Safaris is the leading among the few credible One-Stop Holiday shops in Kenya.
Driven by affordability customer-first approach (Professional teammates who are patient and go out of the way to ensure customers get satisfied), the company’s flexible Commit Kidogo Kidogo and the fact that Expeditions is the only Kenyan tour company with a Visible and concrete CSR program. I was impressed to learn they have been supporting needy students through the Affecto Foundation as part of their commitment. Also, the Karema mentioned they offer a fully paid holiday to 5 less privileged students who are performing well each academic term.
While the journey seems blissful in its making, the journey has been tough for Karema. “Being a young person is a challenge by itself. No one wants to do business with you or better yet believe that you can deliver what you promise.”
With only 10% of the whole world’s population traveling, Kerema believes the opportunity is big for him and he’s just started scratching the surface. The company has so far grown to have 3 outlets; two in Nairobi and one in Mombasa.
To know a genuine tour company, Karema advises that one has to “do research. Search on the internet about the company, the Facebook reviews, photos of people who have traveled with the company. Inbox a random person who has traveled with the company and ask them about the service they experienced.”
What can we learn from Karema?
- To build a successful company as he has done, Karema advises that one must learn how to live with people. “You have to be very good with people. People can build or destroy you.”
- Avoid debts like a plague. If you have other people’s debt, they will bad mouth you. Even if you owe someone Ksh 10, pay and go. Better be left with no money and no debt. That is the only way you will be able to budget with what you have.”
- Pay your suppliers on time. If you do not have suppliers and you cannot stand on your own, they will let you down.
- Be consistent and focused on what you do. Find one thing you can do and remain at it no matter what your friends tell you or how many opportunities come your way.
- Be honest with your customers. Do not promise what you cannot deliver. When you deliver to your customers’ satisfaction, you earn their trust and they will refer you to their friends. These people also become your evangelists and fight for you in your absence. With trust, you can get anything you need.
- Do your research well. Even with people you want to partner with such as suppliers, you need to know their background. A deal can turn sour and you end up losing your customers’ money in the wrong hands thereby destroying your reputation.
- Maintain a good online personal brand. Let everything about you be consistent and easy to find on your social media pages. Employers and contractors secretly visit your social media accounts and pages to see the type of person or company you are and what you are up to. A wrong post or inconsistency in what you share can deny you an opportunity.
To download Inversk Magazine use this link.
